Windows 7 support ends in January, 2020, so if you might keep your computer for longer than that,
Windows 10 is better.

If you want to be cautious (like me), do a full "image" backup of your computer, onto an external
hard disk drive, using one of the excellent free backup programs, like Acronis TrueImage free
WDC Edition (if you have a Western Digital drive), or Seagate DiscImage (if you have a Seagate
drive), or Aomei, EaseUS, or Macrium Reflect. Do a backup before installing Windows 10, so
that you can revert to your old version of Windows, if necessary.

Do another backup after installing Windows 10, for recovering your computer to a working
Windows 10 installation if it ever crashes in the future.

If you waited until after July 29, 2016, upgrading to Windows 10 will cost $119 for the Home version,
of $199 for the Pro version. (Probably. Call me if you're facing this expense.)

1) Some names have changed. E.g., "programs" are now "apps," so "All programs" is now
"All apps," and "Computer" is now called "This PC" in some contexts.

2) Some things have moved from the left-click-on-Start-button menu to the right-click-on-
start-button menu. Control Panel is one of them!

3) The "lock" button moved from the Power-off/Shutdown menu to your user-name icon.(Why?? I guess because Microsoft thinks Easter egg hunts are fun?)

4) Some things have moved to different folders / categories. E.g., the old "Accessories"
folder is now "Windows Accessories," which moves it from near the beginning of All Programs
to near the end of All Apps.

5) Microsoft Security Essentials is now Windows Defender, and it is included, and it is free.
You can find it in Control Panel. (Right-click the Startbutton, then left-click Control Panel.)

8) Here's some good advice about how to configure the Sleep and Hibernate "Power Options."

9) Microsoft's Windows 10 "Mail App" is absolute garbage. It can't even manage email folders.
However, if you use the IMAP protocol you can use the Mail App along with a more competent
email program, like Windows Live Mail. However, Microsoft has now discontinued support for
Windows Live Mail, which was pretty good, and they've removed the download link from their
web site. But you can still get it, along with the rest of the Windows Essentials 2012 Suite
(mainly Movie Maker and Windows Live Writer), if you know where to look. Additionally,
Windows Live Writer has a free successor called Open Live Writer (which I've not tried).

Don't worry about ADM's temperature and backup warnings. But the "drive health" which it reports
should be 100%. Not 98%. Not 99%. It needs to be 100%. Anything less is a problem.

Windows 8, 8.1 & 10 Hints

(Updated May 17, 2017)

IMPORTANT: Anyone with Windows 8.0 or Windows XP needs to immediately update it,
to defend against the latest ransomware attack.

Is Windows 8 or 8.1 (or 10, but it's not as bad) driving you nuts?

For Windows 8, the first thing you should do is to upgrade to Windows 8.1 (or 10).
For Windows 8.1, you should either upgrade to 10, or else install Classic Shell,
to get back your Windows Start Button. It is free, open-source, and wonderful.

Second,
remember: The Windows Key Is My Friend. After you've installed Classic
Shell, pressing the Windows Key will return you to the regular Windows Desktop,
even when there's no obvious way to get there. (Alt-F4 to "close" is also worth
memorizing.)

Third, you probably don't need a 3rd-party antivirus program. Starting with Windows 8,
Microsoft has dropped the old (mostly useless) Windows Defender, and renamed their (pretty
good) Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) to Windows Defender, and included it with Windows.
The link to run it manually is in Control Panel.(But never forget: anti-virus software is not what keeps you safe on the 'web. It's more like
your seatbelt when you're driving a car. Paranoia is what keeps you safe, on the 'web or on
the road. Your antivirus software and seatbelt just improve your odds of survival if you make
a bad mistake.)

An annoying Windows 8 & 8.1 feature is Microsoft's heavy-handed effort to coerce
users into using “Microsoft accounts” (email addresses) for logging into Windows.
To avoid that, and use a traditional, simple “local account,” instead, follow these
instructions while setting up Windows 8 or 8.1 (or these instructions for Windows 10).

A major defect of Windows 8 and later versions is that they don't officially support Microsoft
Office 2003 or MS Office XP (2002). Also, Microsoft Office Starter Edition (which was free
with Windows 7), doesn't come with Windows 8 or later. (I've managed to get Office 2003 to
run on Windows 8.x & 10, but Windows Update won't install updates/fixes, so I've had to
work out how to do that manually.)

If all you need is word processing (no spreadsheets, etc.), you might like the free,
open-source AbiWord word processor. It's a bit dated, but it is very robust, and
I've seen it recover a .doc file which was too damaged for Microsoft Word, itself,
to handle. Or, for simple word processing, try WordPad (which comes with Windows).

(Note: you don't have to pick just one. I installed & use four: Kingsoft Office, OpenOffice,
AbiWord, and genuine Microsoft Office.)

Other good, free tools can be found at the indispensible ninite.com site.

Windows XP Hints

(Updated May 17, 2017)

IMPORTANT: Anyone with Windows XP or Windows 8.0 needs to immediately update it,
to defend against the latest ransomware attack.

Q: Microsoft has terminated support for Windows XP. Do I need to replace my
Windows XP computer, or upgrade the operating system?

A: No. It's not an emergency, anyhow.

Many XP computers are old and slow, and overdue for replacement. (I can help you
pick a good replacement, if you wish.) But if your computer is still running well, then
there's no immediate need to replace it.

Microsoft is no longer supplying fixes for Windows XP, but there's no immediate need
to replace the Windows XP operating system, either. Most computers which run XP
are not good candidates for upgrading to a newer version of Windows, anyhow.

However, if you use Microsoft Security Essentials ("MSE") for virus protection, you
should uninstall it and replace it with one of the free alternatives.

So I think it's best to uninstall MSE and replace it with one of the free alternatives. The
deadline to do so is July 15, 2015, but it's probably better to do it sooner, if for no other
reason than to get rid of the red "at risk" warning. So here's how to do it:

3.How to "hard-reset" your Chromebook:
Chromebooks are inexpensive little web-browsing machines. They tend to be fairly
trouble-free, but if you accidentally get to a hard-to-close scammer web page, you'll need
to hard-reset and restart, without "restoring," like this:

UPnP SECURITY ALERT

(January 31, 2013)

To check your home network's router for the UPnP security flaw, use the
"Scan My Router" button on the Rapid7 Router Security Check web page.